


gravity makes wonders

by thebandsvisit



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, paige survives and gets to meet finn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-26
Updated: 2017-12-26
Packaged: 2019-02-22 03:51:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,779
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13158684
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thebandsvisit/pseuds/thebandsvisit
Summary: She thinks that that is the kind of person she’d like to be, for herself and for Rose and for the Resistance.Paige lives through the bombing of the Dreadnought and meets a hero.





	gravity makes wonders

“Commander!” Paige shouts across the hangar, shoving her helmet under her arm and jogging over to Black One. “Where have you been, sir? I haven’t seen you since Starkiller.”

Commander Dameron emerges from behind his X-Wing, dirty rag in hand and BB-8 at his heels. He looks like he hasn’t slept in weeks but still makes an effort to smile when he answers. “I’ve mostly been in the medbay. Sorry, I would’ve come looking for you, but I got, um. Something came up.”

Paige presses her lips together. She’s been flying with the man for a while now, and there’s only one reason someone like Commander Dameron would spend so long cooped up in the medbay (he usually finds a way out after about an hour even when he’s the one incapacitated). Feeling very bold indeed, she ventures: “What’s his name?”

The commander huffs out a quiet laugh. Paige is relieved that he doesn’t seem to be offended. He looks down at his hands and his brow furrows as though he’s searching for something. “Finn,” he says, and there’s a quiet warmth in the way he says it, a humming undercurrent of something Paige recognizes but can’t identify – “He saved me. He saved all of us.”

“On Jakku?”

“No, on the Finalizer,” Commander Dameron says, leaning against his X-Wing. “I got captured on my mission and I thought I was dead for sure, but he rescued me.”

“I’ve never heard of him,” Paige says, already impressed – it’s a monumental task just to sneak into a First Order Star Destroyer, let alone to seek out a captured Resistance member and rescue him. “When did he join?”

“Oh, no, no,” the commander says quickly, and there’s a softness in his tired eyes now that he’s talking about his medbay man. “Finn defected from the First Order. Stormtrooper.”

The very word makes Paige’s breath hitch in her throat, and though the visions of cold white armor and the dangerous sound of leather boots marching in time spring to mind first, whispers of stolen children and people beneath plastoid are quick to follow. Commander Dameron seems to notice the change in her demeanor. He smiles wryly. “He risked his life to save mine, and brought back the map to Luke Skywalker. But he got injured fighting Kylo Ren on Starkiller Base.”

“Oh,” Paige says, more of an exhalation than anything else. “Finn was a Stormtrooper.”

“Yeah.”

Paige is silent for a moment. The knowledge that a Stormtrooper could ever be – well, _not_ a Stormtrooper – throws her for a loop.

But there’s such a beautiful fondness in the commander’s voice when he talks about this mysterious defector that Paige finds herself filled with a kind of hope that is very new but very welcome. She thinks that _that_ is the kind of person she’d like to be, for herself and for Rose and for the Resistance. Someone who is so stubborn and steadfast in their purity of heart that not even being entrenched in the deepest evil can change them. “He sounds like a hero.”

Commander Dameron laughs then, warm and without any trace of malice. He really is nothing if not genuine. Paige loves that. “You’re right about that. Ah, Paige,” he says, tapping her on the shoulder lightly before turning back to his ship. “I really hope you get to meet him someday.”

“Me too,” Paige replies, still quietly in awe, and watches the commander work on a stubborn spot of dirt on his windshield for a little while before leaving.

 

The necklace is so cold in her hand, even as her bomber is going up in flames. Paige squeezes her eyes shut and clutches the crescent moon pendant as tightly as she can, Rose’s smiling face appearing in her mind in blinding clarity.

_Rose, I’m sorry, I love you, I hope you can forgive me –_

The Cobalt Hammer explodes and Paige falls.

 

She wakes up quite suddenly and immediately wishes she hadn’t, her eyes opening to blinding white light and snapping shut again quickly. Her arms and legs and everything else don’t seem to be working right now.

It’s still so bright. Paige squints as her eyes adjust to the harsh whiteness of what seems to be a room in the Resistance cruiser’s medbay.

There’s a presence at her bedside. It has to be Rose. Nobody else would wait for her. Paige makes a painful effort to turn her head slightly for her sister’s benefit. The tiny motion makes Rose’s head snap up and the look on her face is totally worth it.

“Paige!” Rose exclaims, so full of relief that Paige’s heart aches, and flies forward to take Paige’s hand in her own. “Oh, thank the Maker. I’m so glad you’re okay. I was so scared.”

Paige lets out a small cough, the best approximation of a laugh she can muster right now. “I was… how…?”

“Commander Dameron,” Rose says gently, grip tight but not painful. “He went back to save you. You blew up a freakin’ _Dreadnought,_ Paige, it was badass! Or so I hear.”

Paige lets the corners of her lips twitch. “It was pretty badass.” As Rose takes in a shuddering breath and clutches at Paige’s hand like she’s afraid she’ll disappear, Paige’s mind wanders.

Commander Dameron came back for her. _Her._ While the rest of the bomber pilots had perished, while the world had collapsed into flame all around her, he’d saved her.

The other pilots. Oh, Maker.

Paige closes her eyes again and just lets herself breathe, even if the air is starting to run stale. Every breath feels heavier now.

 

It takes a little while, but eventually Paige is sitting up and grimly making her way through the log of what happened with the Dreadnought, resisting the urge to flinch at every name now marked in black. She puts a hand to the bandage wrapped around her head, feeling somewhat lightheaded upon seeing the sheer death toll, when the door to her room slides open.

Commander Dameron enters first, followed by a man Paige doesn’t recognize. The unknown man is wearing the flight jacket that the commander has always liked so much.

“Paige,” Commander Dameron says, and his voice puts Paige at ease. It’s the first time she’s seen him since he – well. Since he did her that, uh, huge favor. “How are you feeling?”

Paige considers it for a moment. “Permission to speak candidly, sir?”

“I keep telling you, you don’t need to talk to me like that,” the commander protests. “Go ahead.”

“Like shit,” says Paige.

He laughs at that, and his companion seems to find it amusing too. “Listen, hey, I really wanted you to meet – ”

“Finn,” Paige says, eyes fixed on the way the man wears the commander’s beloved flight jacket like it belongs to him – which, at this point, she thinks it probably does. _“You’re_ Finn.”

It’s strange to put a face to the name, finally, but everything about him is somehow just as Paige imagined it would be. Finn glances at Commander Dameron briefly, then looks back at her. His gaze is steady but betrays some uncertainty, which is, Paige supposes, to be expected – she’s not sure what the protocol in this kind of situation is, either.

“Poe told me about what you did,” Finn says. “It was, really, it was very brave of you.”

“Oh,” Paige replies, slightly stunned, unable to take her eyes off him. “I couldn’t hold a candle to you, though.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You,” Paige says emphatically, and she’s getting more excited now, the full realization that she’s finally getting to meet _Finn_ sinking in. “You saved the commander’s life and you saved the Resistance – you’re a hero.”

Finn shakes his head quickly, looking vaguely embarrassed. “No, no, I was just doing what was right. I’m not a hero.”

“Oh, but you are,” Paige insists, and if she weren’t feeling so terrible she’d be seizing him by the shoulder for emphasis. “Sometimes doing the right thing is the hardest thing in the galaxy and _nothing_ we’d have right now would be possible without you. I feel like I should thank you. Everyone in the Resistance owes you our thanks.”

Finn looks mildly taken aback, and Commander Dameron chuckles quietly, putting a hand on Finn’s lower back. “We haven’t gotten a chance to talk to many others just yet, but I’m sure they’ll all be saying the same thing.”

“They'd better,” Paige says before she can stop herself from being rude to her commanding officer. Maybe the painkilling drugs in her system are making her bolder. “You’ve only told the story to every person on this cruiser.”

The commander sputters as Finn laughs, and the sound makes Paige smile too. Finn moves closer to her bed, looking sympathetic as Paige reaches up to adjust the bandage around her head.

“Does it hurt?”

“Kind of, yeah,” Paige says gloomily. “If not for Commander Dameron, I’d be stardust.”

Finn glances back at the commander with a smile. He turns back to her a second later, smile still lingering on his lips. “Hey, it’s not every day you get to take down a Dreadnought. It must have looked really cool.”

“It must have, but as you can imagine, I never got to see it,” Paige replies, glancing down at her datapad. “I’m glad I lived to hear about it, though. It might have been nice to go out with a bang, but for the sake of Rose… ah.”

“What is it?”

“Rose is my sister,” Paige explains, still finding Finn’s face much too fascinating to truly look away from. “She’s a _huge_ fan of you. As are plenty of people, I should add. You really are a hero here, you know, even if you don’t agree.”

Finn’s cheeks flush and Paige giggles quietly. “What,” she says. “Are you embarrassed of being called a hero?”

“Yeah,” he replies bashfully. “I don’t think I deserve that title at all.”

Paige smiles softly. “You’ve given me hope. Given all of us hope. That’s a _real_ hero in my book.”

Finn sits down in Rose’s chair now, and there’s this amazing quality about his gaze that makes you feel like you’re the only one in the galaxy whose opinion he wants to hear. It hasn’t been long since she first heard of him, but Paige already absolutely adores him. “Maybe we can both be heroes in our own ways,” he says.

“Maybe we can,” Paige says, and looks over at Commander Dameron, who is watching the two of them with glee in his eyes. She nods at him slightly, and he knows that what she means is _thank you._


End file.
